The mobile phone shipments in the quarter witnessed a growth of 6% Vs. year ago, there was a minor decline of 3% Vs. previous quarter (January-March 2011). In absolute terms, the Indian market clocked a shipment of 42.8 million units in Q2 2011.

“Shipments cooled down a bit in the April-June quarter of 2011, partly due to an inventory build-up from the preceding quarters and partly because vendors apparently paused to take a relook at their product portfolio strategies. The India-based vendors have particularly been busy planning their debuts in the smartphone category, so some of their energies were expectedly absorbed there. A certain degree of gear-shifting for an awaited smartphone play is on the cards and the results will be visible in the next few quarters” [IDC]

Key Stats

The smartphone segment showed an impressive growth of 68% year-on-year and a marginal growth of 0.4% over the Jan-March 2011 quarter, to garner a share of 5.6% of the overall mobile phone market. In Q2 CY 2010, the share of smartphones was 3.6% of the overall mobile phone market, in unit terms

Smartphones with average sales values of INR 18,000 and above witnessed a significant growth of 31% over the preceding quarter and a whopping 96% growth over the year-ago quarter, Q2 CY2010.

Market Leader

Nokia continued to lead the mobile phone market and the smartphone segment in Q2 2011, with 25% and 45.8% shares, respectively.

Samsung, second to Nokia with shares of 15% and 21% in the mobile phone market and the smartphone segment, respectively, also clocked the strongest smartphone shipment growth during the quarter, fuelled by its Galaxy series of handsets.

In the smartphone segment, RIM occupied the third place with a share of 15%.

The top 5 India vendors, including Karbonn, Micromax, Lava, Spice and MAXX, accounting for a share of 19% of the overall shipments.

OS?

The smartphone segment saw a significant traction for Apple’s iOS platform, which captured a share of 2.6% in Q2 2011, as against a negligible share in the previous quarter. In terms of growth momentum, Android led with the highest growth rate of 10%, quarter-on-quarter.